... Missiles have rained down on Moscow in a massive Ukrainian attack targeting the city, explosions and fires have been reported in several locations in the city's southwestern and eastern regions. ...

What is the date the vid speaks of?

@#6 ... They are apparently important enough to resonate with voters in a state that's been Red for decades now. ...

While I do not disagree, the ultimate decision of that resonance will be on Election Day.

So ... Pres Trump, again,seems to have misrepresented an agreement he said he had, but did not have?

Why does he seem to have the need to prevaricate so much in order to boost himself?

@#4

As I said, late-stage campaign fluff.

:)

... Henkel previously worked in IT security for the Air Force and one day in the early 2000s saw a practice that just wouldn't fly today ...

Yeah.

Today, we have the Secretary of Defense go on to a public social media site and apparently provide quite specific details of a US Military mission.

At this point in the campaign, his comments are little more than fluff.

They seem to be based more upon the current day-to-day conditions than any manner of a longer-term strategy.

And not just him, but all the candidates at this point, two and a half weeks before election day.

The problem they seem to be facing is that the voters may have already decided.

Not only who they might vote for, but whether or not they may even vote.

Will the Republicans or the Democrats encourage more of their supporters to actually go to the polls?

That's the current question I wish I knew.

And the polls to not seem to reflect that aspect ...

Wow.

More from the article ...

... "They would write a CD, and then they would take that CD and then put it in a classified system and do the remainder of the mission planning," Henkel told us. "Then they would take that disc and then put it in the airplane."

Inside the airplane, the data on the CD would help the pilot navigate and contain information about threats they might encounter.

Later, when thumb drives became a thing, pilots used them instead of discs.

"They didn't really think about the overall impact of classified versus unclassified systems," Henkel said of the pilots. "Using the same device for both, they didn't understand that you could read and write onto a USB drive with malware. [They were] not really understanding the overall threat picture."

According to Henkel, Air Force personnel would buy their flash drives from local vendors rather than sourcing them from official military contractors. If they were in Afghanistan, those drives could literally come from a store in Kabul. And it wasn't exactly the equivalent of Best Buy. ...

"It was more difficult to bring a US-based computer into the nation than it was just to buy local," he said. "So they were just going out into the local market in Kabul or whatever city that they were out [in]. And I used to do this: go out, make relationships with the local vendors. Hey I need 100 USB sticks.'"

Unfortunately, enemies of the US noticed and soon started selling infected USB drives to local vendors in the Middle East.

Henkel knew that using a sneakernet with classified systems was a recipe for disaster. It's just that no one would listen to him.

"It was just a shock," he told us. "I was a young 22-year-old guy, very junior in the overall rank system, trying to tell colonels and majors that what they're doing is a violation.

In 2008, the US Department of Defense was infected by malware after somebody attached an infected USB flash drive to a laptop with access to US Central Command. The worm, dubbed Agent.BTZ, could collect information from infected computers and communicate with remote servers. A 2016 report from the FBI and DHS attributed the malware to one or more Russian groups. ...

Pres Trump, at his campaign rallies, often talks about sending your son to school and then, when he comes home, he is your daughter.

But what has Pres Trump said about giving your child a hug in the morning and then waving to them as the school bus drives away, and having that child coming back in a coffin?

Mr Musk is enjoying Pres Trump's multi-trillion tax cut for billionaires, while working Americans suffer and strive to put food on the table.

Why is it a surprise that billionaires want more of the same from the Republicans they seem to own?

And then there is the apparent inheritocracy that looks to be developing...

@#53 ... Democrats are weak and republicans know it. ...

Not necessarily weak, but more unable to come together for a common goal.

... The Supreme Court is in Trump's pocket. ...

Yup.

... Congress is non existent. ...

Congress is not non-existent. Congress still exists.

However ...

The Republicans in Congress have traded their "separate branch of government" responsibilities for untethered adulation of Pres Trump.

And the Republicans in Congress seem to agree with Pres Trump's assertions ...

Pres Trump - April 13, 2020
"When somebody's the president of the U.S., the authority is total, and that's the way it's gotta be."

Related ...

More from the poll ...

... Most Americans say President Trump has prioritized his personal financial interests and the interests of people close to him since taking office again in 2025. Far fewer say he has prioritized the country as a whole or people like them. Four in 10 believe he has done something illegal and another 18% see his actions as unethical but not illegal, though views diverge sharply by party.

More adults see Trump as focused on his own business interests and those of his inner circle than on the country as a whole or people like them. A majority, 56%, say Trump has prioritized his personal business interests "a lot," and 54% say the same about the business interests of his friends and family. By comparison, only 23% say he has prioritized the country overall "a lot," and just 11% say he has prioritized people like them "a lot." Half of Americans say Trump has not prioritized people like them at all.

Democrats and independents overwhelmingly say Trump has prioritized his own business interests and those of his friends and family "a lot" or "some," and about half of Republicans agree. Republicans are much more likely than Democrats or independents to say the president has prioritized the country overall or people like them. ...

@#2 ... A livestreamed execution from the US would send a message indeed. ...

... and what might be that message that indeed would be sent?

@#48

I've seen those polls.

But those polls represent their opinions now, not two and a half weeks from now.

That aspect aside, it still does not address my #44 comment upon whether or not those folk will be motivated enough to actually go to the polls and vote.

And, on the Republican side ...

It looks like VP Vance is leading by 16%.

At this point, it looks like fmr VP Harris is the frontrunner for the 2028 nomination ...

It shows just how little we know about the universe we live in.

imo, it is also great now that scientists can publish their theories and findings without having to worry about being excommunicated by a religion.

More from the cited article ...

... Recent research shows that gravity and quantum information are deeply connected and that the shape of spacetime can be traced back to the way information is stored in quantum fields.

Einstein's theory of general relativity describes gravity as the curvature of space and time caused by matter and energy. Quantum theory, on the other hand, describes the microscopic world. Uniting the two is one of the biggest open problems in physics.

In 1995, the physicist Ted Jacobson showed that Einstein's equations can be derived from thermodynamics, the physics of heat and entropy, much like the laws governing a gas emerge from the motion of its molecules. This suggested that gravity might not be fundamental but could emerge from something deeper.

In their research, published in the journal Physical Review Letters, the authors reconstruct the thermodynamic derivation of general relativity through sophisticated mathematical methods that connect quantum information to spacetime geometry.

However, it emerges from the paper and extensive conversations with the authors that their research could provide new clues about the origin of gravity, a tentative conclusion they reach through their use of quantum relative entropy.

The authors build on the idea that space and gravity may not be fundamental features of nature but may instead emerge from the quantum world. Rather than relying on the classical notion of entropy, they employ quantum relative entropy, a precise mathematical measure from quantum information theory that quantifies how distinguishable two quantum states are. ...

@#43

I understand the [apparent?] sarcasm of your comment.

But it adds credence to my concern regarding the Democrats.

Are the polls showing how well the Democrats may perform two and a half weeks from now helping or hindering?

Or are those polls discouraging those Democrat voters who have a, let's say, marginal, motivation to vote in an off-year to actually vote?

Ditto, but the inverse for the marginally motivated Republican voters. Are the polls giving them the reason to go out and vote in this off-year?

imo, the Democrats seem to be stuck in celebration mode too early ...

Related ...

Related ...

One thing (of many about the election) that has been on my mind of late ...

Does the timing of the Democrats have them peaking too early?

Have the Democrats chosen a wave to ride that was too close to the shore, and the wave may not last as long as they need it to last to ride to a win?

Then there's this ...

@#51 ... "The Top 1% includes people who earn more that about $800,000 per year."

And their marginal rate is the same as someone making 100X more. ...

Likely why the cited article used the 1% figure instead of the 0.1% figure.